In the formation of semiconductor integrated circuit devices, a frequent practice in the planar process is to form subsurface diffusion layers and polysilicon conductors on a silicon substrate surface. One or more dielectric films are deposited over the silicon substrate surface and metal wiring conductors are formed on or in the dielectric film to interconnect the various components formed on the silicon substrate surface to achieve the desired integrated circuit.
It is desirable that the dielectric films which are deposited on the substrate prior to the metallization process have a good mobile-ion gettering property, as well as a good reflow or gapfill property. A type of insulating film that has been widely used in the prior art is a single layer of borophosphosilicate (BPSG). With reference to FIG. 5, in the prior art, usually a thin undoped liner oxide 58 is first deposited over a silicon substrate surface 52 having a plurality of polysilicon conductors 54. The thin undoped liner oxide 58 is typically formed by reacting silane (SiH4) with oxygen and that layer is then followed by a layer of a doped glass, such as a layer of BPSG 56, as mentioned above. The purpose of the thin undoped liner oxide layer 58 is to prevent the phosphorous or boron contained in the BPSG film 60 from being diffused into the diffusion layer of the substrate 52.
The purpose for using the BPSG film as the interlayer dielectric film is based on a gettering property and on a reflow property. It is important that the dielectric film have good gettering properties as it is desired to be able to getter effectively to remove any impurities that are introduced during the wafer fabrication process. It is also important that the dielectric film have good reflow properties so as to completely fill in the gaps between raised polysilicon conductors on the silicon substrate surface. This quality is sometimes referred to as having good “gapfill” or good “step coverage”.
In the prior art, the BPSG film layer is typically formed by reacting tetra-ethyl-ortho-silicate (TEOS) with ozone (O3) in the presence of phosphine (PH3) and diborane (B2H6). In this document we refer to the ozone and TEOS reactants as “ozone/TEOS” or “ozone and TEOS”. The doped BPSG film has about four to six percent weight of boron and about from four to eight percent weight of phosphorus. The softening point of SiO2 can be reduced to about 875-900° C. by the addition of high quantities of boron and phosphorus as described above. Then, a reflow step is used at high temperatures, such as 875-900° C., to soften the doped glass and to flow it into the seams and gaps in the substrate to form a pre-metal dielectric film with good gapfill qualities. However, it is noted that the heavily doped BPSG film does not have good as-deposited gapfill qualities. It only completely fill the gaps between the polysilicon conductors after it has been reflowed at a temperature higher than its softening point.
However, as device geometries continue to decrease in size, reflow at high temperatures is not desirable due to enhanced diffusion of the n- and p-type dopants that are in the silicon substrate. This diffusion can cause undesirable shifts in the electrical parameter of the device, such as shifts in the threshed voltage and the saturation current. Without the high temperature reflow, however, the heavily-doped BPSG film does not adequately fill in the gaps. The doping materials, boron and phosphorous, lower the softening point of the glass so that is doesn't provide an adequate gapfill at lower temperatures. As shown in FIG. 5, voids 60 can develop in the BPSG film 56 between the polysilicon conductors 54. When contacts are etched through the dielectric film and are filled with tungsten during the subsequent metallization process, the tungsten, which is deposited by chemical vapor deposition (CVD), fills into the voids causing residual metal or “stringers” to form between adjacent contacts. This can cause unwanted electrical shorting between the adjacent contacts, which can cause the semiconductor device to fail. Therefore, what is needed is a pre-metallization dielectric film with good gapfill characteristics without the requirement of high temperature reflow..
Previous attempts in the prior art to produce an interlevel dielectric film with good gap fill qualities include U.S. Pat. No. 5,518,962 to Murao which discloses a semiconductor device formed at a substrate surface region which is coated with a non-doped CVD silicon oxide film, and an interlayer insulating film formed on the silicon oxide film and composed of a first ozone-TEOS non-doped silicate glass (NSG) film, a layer of BPSG film, and a second ozone-TEOS NSG film. Additionally, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,869,403 and 5,994,237 to Becker et al. describe a semiconductor processing method of forming a contact opening to a substrate adjacent to a substrate contact area to which electrical connection is to be made. In the preferred embodiment, a first oxide layer, formed from the decomposition of TEOS, is formed over the substrate to cover at least a part of the contact area, and a second oxide layer made of BPSG is formed over the first oxide layer. Also, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,166,101 and 5,354,387 to Lee et al. discloses a composite BPSG insulating and planarizing layer which is formed over stepped surfaces of a semiconductor wafer by a two-step process. The two step deposition process comprises a first step to form a void-free BPSG layer by a CVD deposition using gaseous sources of phosphorous and boron dopants and TEOS as the source of silicon, and then a second step to form a capping layer of BPSG.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of forming a pre-metal interlevel dielectric film that is characterized by good mobile-ion gettering capability and by good gapfill characteristics.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a method of forming a pre-metal interlevel dielectric film which displays good as-deposited gapfill characteristics which are not dependent on a high temperature reflow process.